


The 803th reboot

by Azazel_Shaaryn



Category: The Good Place (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/M, Gen, Moral Ambiguity, Pre-Relationship, Reboot 803
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-01-31
Updated: 2020-01-31
Packaged: 2021-02-25 09:42:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 5,301
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22494010
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Azazel_Shaaryn/pseuds/Azazel_Shaaryn
Summary: What if Vicky, instead of threatening Michael and pushing him to ally himself to the humans, kept silent and plotted with other demons ? The result is an 803th reboot where Eleanor wakes up to a female architect and the feeling that something isn’t right at the very beginning.
Relationships: Janet & Michael (The Good Place), Janet (The Good Place) & Eleanor Shellstrop, Michael (The Good Place) & Eleanor Shellstrop, Michael (The Good Place)/Eleanor Shellstrop
Comments: 5
Kudos: 36





	1. Chapter 1

Eleanor opened her eyes.

In front of her, vibrant green letters were spelling “ _Welcome, everything is fine_ ” on a bright white wall which was frankly not reassuring. No place where everything was fine needed to assure it so. That and the fact she couldn’t remember how she got here and was getting kind of anxious because there was no way she could feel this sober and have a blackout. Right ?

Cutting through her thoughts, a door opened on her left to reveal a chocolate skinned woman, pretty and well dressed.

She smiled widely – almost too much – at Eleanor as she offered her to come in. She felt herself get up with an air of tranquility and soft smile, with the terrifying certainty that this woman couldn’t be trusted. Where the hell was she ?

As she moved, everything around her seemed to get a strange dreamlike quality. She felt like something was missing, like this office she was entering was too empty, too impersonal with no objects other than the desk, its chair and a picture of a brown-haired man on the side.

From the welcome speech of the woman whose name was Vicky to visiting with her what was apparently called the Neighborhood, Eleanor couldn’t think. This … Good Place ? This bland, boring place ? Where were the people who could make you happy, the wonderful sights and the delicious food ? What the fuck ?

Everywhere she looked, people were happy in this strange way, almost manic without any of the serenity one would expect of eternal peace. She knew she didn’t belong here, but to the point where heaven looked to her like a bad joke, it almost hurt.

Her “house” for example was a fucking nightmare, yes she wasn’t the Eleanor Shellstrop for whom it was designed, but really ? Clowns … everywhere ? Bad decoration she could deal with, she had certainly seen far worse alive than a clean white space with touches of blue, but the clowns …

Her neighbor was someone named Glenn she was to meet at the greeting party, but from the look of his house – a little pavilion all suburb-like – she could already guess how utterly boring he was going to be. In fact, everything in this “neighborhood” looked like it was an utter bore. I mean, frozen yogurt ? What kind of heaven would only let you eat one of the most disappointing dessert you could find ? Give her fucking greasy food – or shrimps – and no calorie intake or some kind of alcoholic ambrosia, not false ice-cream yogurts.

And what kind of heaven didn’t have hotties everywhere ? Which yeah seemed normal now she thought about it, nice people were boring respectful ones, too openminded to ever want a place with only beauty in it. Too bad.

°°°

What the actual fuck ? And thank god it still worked in her head, she wouldn’t be able to deal with her mind cursing “fork”. So, everyone here was a blissfully happy person and kind of a dick apparently since every conversation she had during the reunion ended up with her lying at every turn and getting burned by sideway comments from those nice people.

The sexy giraffe for example had been at first a really good surprise – she was freaking drool worthy – but wow, what a bitch. They had exchanged some words and Eleanor had been very happy to leave her behind after a minute when Vicky came to get Tahani to meet someone else.

Now that the meeting was over the last thing she wanted was to “mingle” but she didn’t want to go back to her house so soon either, she would see these clowns far enough in the eternity before her. Hadn’t Vicky – Miss Mayor and an … angel ? – said something about going home for the day in order to take the time to digest all these news ? Yeah well, who cared ? Certainly not Eleanor.

She was going to take a walk, she was supposed to be an environmental activist, right ? Who could say that staying outside wasn’t something she liked, or did when she wanted to “digest some news” ? Take that heaven, Shellstrops always get their ways.

She discreetly veered right when she thought she was out of sight and walked toward the forest running along the road. Funnily enough she was feeling better now that she was here. Forests weren’t usually her preferred places but this one looked like the only thing without that strange dreamlike quality that veiled everything in the neighborhood.

God she wanted a drink ! … maybe she should stop saying God now even if it was more by habit than real faith, she didn’t want anyone to hear her and come looking for the glitch in the matrix now, did she ? She may not belong here, but she didn’t think she belonged in hell either, and if she did, well …. she didn’t want to know.

She threw a look behind her and was pretty surprised when she realized she was much further than she had first thought as the road was completely out of sight. Could she get lost in heaven ? Nah … She would probably find her way back following a fucking rainbow squirrel or something. Slightly to her right she could swear there was something, like a lodge several feet ahead. Curiosity now wide awake, she pushed her way through the vegetation which was getting thicker as she got closer to what was definitely a small wooden lodge.

This was the happiest she had been since she had learnt she was dead, maybe she had just found what would become her little hidey hole, a secret – another, terrific – because the place seemed really remote. Now that she thought about it, time had a strange drag here, for how long had she been walking ?

She went to the door and slowly pushed it open as she said “Hello here, is there someone ? Yes ? No ? Am I bothering …”. She heard her voice dwindle down as she took in the room. Well, she wasn’t bothering anyone that was for sure since there was just a fucking, freaking human sized casket in the middle of it – when would the fun terrifying stuff stop ? seriously – which was heavily chained closed to the floor. Great. Just great. She wasn’t going to last long in the Good Place, was she ?

Curiosity killed the cat Eleanor and you knew it.


	2. Chapter 2

Well, yes but didn’t that saying also goes “but satisfaction brought it back” ? Because now, the last thing she wanted was to be discovered and sent to hell but could she really just go back to her house and forget about the fucking casket hidden in the forest ? Nope.

What if there was an alarm on this ? Did it count as a robbery ? She hoped not. She couldn’t go away because nothing dead would rest so carefully chained down but what did she really know about heaven, she didn’t want to desecrate a grave either.

There was a small pitch-black marble on the center of the coffin where every chain crossed themselves which seemed to be pulsating in a rhythm unknown to her. As she sometime said – when she was really sloshed, but what can you do that was a good third of her life – fucking pick up your balls and go for it.

Her hand hovered above the small orb for several seconds before she took a deep breath and pushed it down to take hold. A wave of painful heat washed over her. She didn’t get the time to realize there was a second coming as this one was pure kinetic energy. The world went black seconds later, when her whole body rammed into the wall.

°°°

This was one motherfucking hangover. What the hell happened, she felt like her head was trying to split in two or more. She opened her eyes slowly and yelped with a wince – apparently everything hurt – as in front of her and really too fucking close swam a feminine but blurry face.

“Hello Eleanor ! Thank you for rescuing me. What can I do for you ?”

And this person in her face had the gall to be smiling jovially. What. The. Fuck. OH. She was in heaven and this wasn’t a hangover, this was her trying to open a hidden chained casket in a mysterious forest lodge.

“Whaa …”. Alright no talking yet for you Eleanor.

“Oh yes I see, let me help you with that”. As the cheerful – why was it so happy this person just came out of a coffin – voice came back a warm, comfortable heat washed over her. Cognitive functions restored she recoiled against the wall, realizing she was half sitting on the floor under a looming, smiling brown-haired woman in very classic clothes. A woman who was not dead, had been for know how long inside a heavily chained casket and somehow knew her name. That seemed like freaking bad news, why couldn’t she have kept her hands in her pockets and turned around ?

“So are you a demon I somehow freed because I’m too stupid to not touch shiny things ? Or … ?” She squinted at the woman. “And how do you know my forking name ?”.

She was bewildered when the new being back went straight, her hands carefully folded in front of her and smiling.

“Hello, I’m Janet ! I’m an anthropomorphized database of information which can give you anything you ask for. I am to help you in whatever you need to make sure you have a wonderful time here, in the Good Place”.

“Okaayy. And what were you doing in the casket Janet ?”

“I was put here as a form of deactivation when Vicky realized that Michael had hidden my reset button before she could find it.” She was still smiling cheerfully.

“So just to be sure : you’re a nice girl who was made prisoner ? Who’s the ash-hole named Michael and why did he hide your … reset button ?”

“I’m not a girl but yes I am very nice !” She stopped talking for several seconds, almost hesitating. “Michael is the architect of this place and my owner, he hid my reset button in order to make sure Vicky wouldn’t be able to erase my memories of him. Do you not know Michael ?”

Did she stumble into the result of a conflict between immortal beings ? Thank fuck she was in the Good Place, what would it be in the Bad Place if she discovered conspiracies there on the first day. Ah ! Certainly not smiling girls who healed her after she almost made herself brain dead.

“Please answer me, I am unable to reconnect to the neighborhood without averting Vicky of my awareness and so do not have any information which is maddening and very worrying.” 

“Alright calm your horses for a second.” Janet tilted her head at her in incomprehension. “Just calm down, trying to register the fact that the woman, angel or whatever that I met after I died is the reason you were chained down in a forest and she made the real architect of this place disappear because I’ve never seen or heard of him.”

What the … her afterlife was actually crazier than her actual life, who would have thought. Wait a minute, Janet still hadn’t said how she knew her name since she said she couldn’t currently collect data from the neighborhood.

“Wait, do you know me ? Have we met before ? How do you know my name ?”

“We have met three weeks before my partial deactivation, you are Eleanor Shellstrop, your soulmate is Trevor and your favorite meal is shrimp.”

“What.” She had been dead for a day. ONE day. How could she have met Janet three weeks before she was made prisoner. And her soulmate ? What soulmate ? This tale seemed darker with every new information. Oh fucking fuckity fuck she hoped this was the Good Place. She needed someone with answers, and she needed them fast.

She tilted her head to the side with a pinched smile. “So, you said you would help me with anything I needed right? So if I was to say I want answers about what is going here what could you do for me ?”

“Nothing, I am currently not in capacity to answer your questions, but I know who would be.”

“Okay okay, Michael is the solution here I get it.” Eleanor sighted. “So. How do we find him ?”

“If my calculations are right – and they always are – Vicky had to rip Michael’s link to the neighborhood in order to pass as the architect, if not he would be here because he controls the very reality of this place.”

How the heck could she smile so jovially while saying such creepy things ? He could control “the reality” of this place, okay, shivers everywhere. She didn’t really know if they were of the bad or good kind, probably both. Janet kept going.

“So, I think we should find Vicky, take her out, get back the master link to the neighborhood and connect me back to the database so we can find out where Michael is.”

“Yeahhh, this sound incredibly easy. Let’s gooo.” Eleanor drawled sarcastically.

Janet looked at her with a smile that suddenly seemed a little too much like a smirk.

“Great, let’s go then !” A pleasant “ _bing_ ” rang through the room, now completely empty. 


	3. Chapter 3

“Oh my god, what the fu-huuu…” Eleanor was cut off by Janet splaying one of her hand on her mouth and shushing her with the other.

They were now inside a luxurious house bedroom, probably Vicky’s if the picture of her with a crown on the nightstand was any indication.

“What are we doing here ?” She whispered furiously as she pushed Janet’s hand off. She hadn’t been ready to teleport, hell she was fiercely against unsolicited body displacement. Even more when it was by a celestial robot girl she barely knew. She was answered a cheerful but tight : “We are exacting our plan.”

Janet faced her and looked straight into her eyes.

“Eleanor, would you accept to distract Vicky so I may surprise her from behind ?”.

“Can’t you just I don’t know … teleport like you just forking did ?”. How was she supposed to distract an celestial being, she wasn’t even sure what she was doing here. Since when did Eleanor Shellstrop stumbled into someone else’s problem and didn’t run straight away ? But how could she turn her back to this when her very sanity seemed to depend on what was at the end of this quest ? She was after all, supposedly, inside heaven – where she took someone else’s place – and she just met on her first day a crazy robot girl who had known her for longer than she had been here. Yeah okay, she was doing this.

“Eleanor ? What are doing here ?”

And … that was Vicky voice. She looked back at Janet in silent panic only to see that she was alone. Wow, this was more and more like an Alice in the rabbit hole kind of adventure.

“Hey ! I was … looking for you.” She smiled brightly. “Sorry, the front door was open and I was really excited about this lake I found, I wanted to ask you if I could go swim there.” She finished with a slight laugh, thankful for all these years of lying that made her words steady right now.

“Okay, yeah no problem Eleanor but how have you been lately ? We haven’t seen you in almost a day ! And did you hear a kind of _bing_ when I came in, I could swear I …” She was cut off by Janet appearing behind her and savagely striking her neck with a flat stiff hand as one of those “ _bing_ ” was heard. Vicky crumbled to the ground.

“Wow, you got it girl !” Eleanor cried as she went closer to them. They high-fived. “Got kind of worried here for a second but forking well done”.

“I know thank you.”

This Janet was inhumanly nice but pretty savage, and she won so many points from this one. Eleanor liked her.

“Now I just have to get back the master link to this reality and connect back to my database.” And she plunged her hand and half of her arm into Vicky’s chest, where her heart was.

What. Did this turn into an horror movie in like two seconds ? Was this the moment where she realized that – as usual – she had made an horrible choice that was going to doom her and everyone else in this place ? For eternity at that, since they were all dead.

Janet removed her arm from Vicky’s body, free of the blood and gore she expected to see.

“It is done, I am currently connecting back to the database. I am connected to the database server. Looking for Michael. Found him. Let’s go.”

Another “ _bing_ ” and they were gone.

°°°

“Where are we now ?”

The light wavered with the movements of what looked like an immense body of water oscillating around them. The room – if you could call it that – seemed to be a kind of bubble forming walls and keeping the water from flooding them.

Janet didn’t answer her.

“Janet ?” Eleanor asked worriedly as she turned around to find her.

Standing behind her slightly to her left, Janet gaze was frozen on the man before them.

“We are under the lake to the far-right side of the neighborhood.” Her voice was flat, sounding robot-like for the first time since they met.

In front of them was a man and if he was her friend, she understood her distress. The tall white – unnaturally so, no one on earth had hair as white not even old people – haired man was sitting on a chair, tied to it by several luminous lines of what she could guess was some kind of metal. On it were etched runes glowing red like fire, one covered his eyes, going around his head to go back to cover his ears and his nose. Half of his face was covered, and she could see that his hands and feet were splayed on the chair, little platforms following the lines of his body and keeping it from touching anything other than the bonds keeping them here.

Well, this was heading straight to horror movie scenario. This couldn’t be the Good Place, not with everything going so wrong on the first day. She didn’t deserve the Good Place and even if her situation definitely sucked this guy’s was way worse. It looked like sensory deprivation and the only times she had heard of that were in movies but even with this little information she knew it was more than bad. For all she knew it was painful too.

“Janet, what do we do ? We can do something right ?”

“I … I cannot do anything, these seals will defragment me if come near them.” The slight waver of her voice confirmed to Eleanor how fucked she was.

“What ? Why ?”

“These are runes warding against non-organic matter and supernatural essence other than their makers, they will unbalance the integrity of my corporal body.” She was pointing to the symbols on his hands and feet as she said it and then pointed to the runes of the bonds on his face. “These ones are made to seal all nines dimensions of his perception and this other one keeps him in a state of semi-consciousness.”

Well that was said at least. No choice now. And really, nine dimensions of perception ? That was freaky as hell and fascinating. Were humans only capable of one with their six senses or did it count as several ? She was pretty sure it was only the one, humanity sucked.

Could she die in the afterlife ? Was this the ultimate bad choice that made her soul disintegrate into nothing ? Fuck she couldn’t turn her back to this. She was a dirtbag okay, but this wasn’t even a question of common decency anymore.

She heard herself laugh uneasily as she got closer to him. He hadn’t reacted at all to their presence, the slight twitches of his muscles the only sign of life. 

“Well, here goes nothing.”

She went with trembling hands to the back of his head and carefully touched the bonds here. To her surprise the material parted under her fingers, separating into two strands she slowly unrolled from his face. She repeated the process for the ones on his feet then those on his hands. When he was completely released, she waited several seconds with bated breath. Nothing happened. He was still sitting, eyes closed, straight against the back of the chair.

“Janet ? What was something supposed to happen here ? Because I gotta say this was disappointing.”

She appeared in front of Eleanor, startling her. She was smiling for the first time since they got inside the room.

“After calculation it would seem it will take him 4 minutes and 53 seconds to adapt back to his full self without destroying his human form. I am grateful for your assistance. We shall relocate to a more suitable location now.”

Eleanor was hit with a nauseous feeling of disequilibrium, feeling like she just went through a wall of compact but fluid jelly and some of it stuck to her closed eyelids. It took very long seconds before the feeling went away.

“No. Just no Janet, no more body flicking all Harry Potter type without any warning. That was awful … were the fork are we ?” Eleanor said as she rubbed her eyes one last time to reassure herself that what – whatever it was – she had felt wasn’t real.

“I transported us in a house I just created on the edge of the neighborhood. I made it inside of what your human mind may think of a fold in the tissue of this universe. No one inside it will find us here.” She threw a look around them and grimaced. “I may have been too focused on Michael while creating this.”

They were now in a bedroom tinted with white and greys, the ground black in a sinuous way that made it look like cold lava. They were splashes of colors in the little shelves scattered at three point of the room, occupied with trinkets that obviously came from earth. Astonishingly enough there was a frame, like those with pinned butterflies, except this one contained paperclip of all sizes and colors. Not what she had in mind when thinking of what a supernatural being’s bedroom would look like, hell any fantasy itching closer to this certainty didn’t have any bed.

A bed Michael was now sitting on, still and straight in a rigidity that screamed his inhumanness. How many times had passed already ? Was it a question of minutes, seconds even before she met the maker of this “universe” ? It was a dizzying and heady thought, as destabilizing as this whole situation was.

He exhaled a shaking breath as his body seemed to come alive and kept his eyes closed. Eleanor realized this was the first time she heard him breath. Janet was silent as a grave behind her.

“Hey, you alright man ?”

It looked like he couldn’t hear her yet. She softly walked closer trying to look at the marks left behind by the bonds. Slight burns adorned his wrists and ankles, darkening an otherwise immaculate suit. They weren’t any trace on his face, but something seemed wrong with his eyes, the unnatural stillness maybe. Her hand went closer without her mind saying so, grazing his temple near a closed eye.

The reaction was instantaneous as she realized she hadn’t really touched him while getting the bonds off. One of his hand clamped painfully on her wrist as the other closed on her throat and took her slightly off the ground. Shit, shit, shit. She fucked up.

“Michael !” Janet cried behind them.

After her outburst Janet didn’t seem partial to an intervention as she stayed right where she was which, great, just great. Thanks a lot.

He didn’t seem to hear her, eyes still closed and face drawn tight, but his hold lightened. His fingers fluttered on her neck and brushed against the strands of hair ending there. His thumb went up to her chin and stroked it with a strange focus.

She realized her free hand was gripping hard the arm keeping her in a choking hold when it moved, bringing her back to the ground and closer to him. He tilted her face and took a deep breath near her throat.

“Eleanor ?”

His voice was hoarse and too loud, like in those videos where she had seen deaf people learn to talk, unable to have a feedback of the sounds they made. He dropped her immediately.

She didn’t know what was worse. That her new “friend” Janet hadn’t made a move while she was grabbed by what was most certainly a hand that could crush her easily. Or that this man could recognize her by approximating her haircut and barely touching her face – and smelling her what the hell – when she didn’t even know him.

“This is the Bad Place, isn’t it ?”

Strangely enough he laughed at that, a rough but pleasant sound.


	4. Chapter 4

She hated this. She didn’t know what to do with herself. She could gather from his reaction – which had stopped at a laugh for that matter – that this was the Bad Place. And now, here she was, standing silent near a database in a human look-alike body and a something of immortal caliber that was just sitting, breathing deeply with his eyes closed.

It was as frightening as it was exciting to feel like his focus was still on her even as he seemed almost meditating. Not that she knew anything about meditation but one of her exes had been into it and it had looked kind of like this.

Janet took several steps toward him, stopping just far enough from him to keep from touching. When she opened her mouth what went out was kind of gibberish but Eleanor could almost hear colors ? Which made no sense at all and gave her a very sudden headache.

It seemed to have the desired effect anyway as he smiled slightly and opened his eyes to look at her.

“Hello Janet, I’m really happy to see you.”

Eleanor gasped as Janet let a small “Oh” escape. His eyes were burning coals, at the same time empty sockets and bright orbs of lava. Janet immediately binged and conjured a pair of glasses, pushing it on his nose and grazing his temples with the pad of her fingers. He flinched lightly.

“Here, that’s better.” His eyes were now human looking, and he seemed softer behind the glasses, the sharp angles of his face broken.

“Thank you Janet, you know how much I like this skin suit.”

Well, that was horrifying to hear. What ? She wasn’t sure she wanted to know more about this. His gaze turned to her and she was really worried when she realized they looked fever bright.

“And I must thank you too Eleanor, I am truly grateful.” He smiled at her. “Who would have thought we would be in this situation.”

“Yeah about that can someone explain to me what the situation is ? Because I died today or yesterday ? And this girl – not a girl I know hot stuff – has apparently known me for longer than I was dead ? So, there’s that too.” Her voice was tight with barely contained anger. She wanted answers and she wanted them now.

Michael waved a hand at her.

“Yes, yes of course but first I have rodent problem I need to take care of.”

“No.” Eleanor growled. “You are both going to tell me what’s going on because you owe me and because there is absolutely no way you’re leaving me here without another word. Who the fork are you ? And how could you know who I am so easily ?”

He sighted tiredly, pinching the bridge of his nose.

“Of course, of course. Janet ?”

A second later there were three armchairs around a coffee table on which three teas mugs steamed.

°°°

“Okay, so this the Bad Place. You’re a demon whose goal was to make us suffer through psychological pain. And you did but I kept discovering the truth so you rebooted me, and three others, 800 hundredth times in the hope of getting it right. And Janet only remember the last one because you usually reboot her too” She sagged in her chair. “That’s so forked up. And I don’t even deserve a medium place.”

He was seated in front of her, leaning forward with his hands joined before him, elbows on his knees. Was his focus always so sharp ? Damn … Wait.

“For how long have you known me ? And why didn’t you just send Vicky here or kill her if you really control the neighborhood and she threatened you ?”

“Well you see I …” he glanced at Janet who smiled widely at him. “You have always been my main focus, I mean you’re unpredictable !” He arms went up and opened as he said that. “I may have developed a … slight obsession with you, this whole world was created for you in a way and it showed. Other demons – these millennials – weren’t happy with it since it has been 300 hundred years of unceasing reboots.”

That was … peculiar. Was she happy to hear this immortal and centuries old demon had spent 300 years planning his life and his personal sandbox around her or horrified to hear she had been dead for a very long time and may forget again the next day if he felt like torturing her again ?

She knew she was fucked up but there was something to be said about the pleasure she could feel deep down when thinking of this tall, powerful man – demon – creating a world for her.

“But what about Vicky ? Why not get rid of her when you understood she was betraying you ?”

Janet made a little jump in her seat.

“Oh, I know this one ! I looked for what happened in my database.” She straightened herself with a smile and folded her hands together. “Michael was in his office and Vicky came in with three other demons and you in a choke hold. She threatened to disintegrate your soul if he didn’t give her the reins. Since he didn’t want that to happen, he placated her with lies about what he would let her do and you tried to convince her to leave Michael alone. She broke one of your arms and three fingers in retaliation.”

Eleanor was looking at her in horror. Michael looked shifty and pained, like he would have preferred this part to stay under the rug. Janet kept happily going on.

“She stupidly explained her whole plan, including the part where she would reboot me to make sure he would have no allies. Michael used his last seconds of freedom to reboot this universe – and by doing so sent you back safely to the void were your souls waits until you’re welcomed – and made sure my reset button was hidden before he got jumped by her allies. End of the story !”

She wanted to remember him. There must have been more than bad or painful moments to this story. It was almost like he cared, like she cared even if it was in the midst of many lies. What did it say about her that she wanted really hard for it to be true. She wanted what this story sketched, what she had lived. 300 years here, so many days and months in his company and others, without remembering anything every time they went for another round. She hoped he had grown tired of it. She wanted to see what was going to come with this one, it certainly seemed like this was the first where she was voluntarily given information.

**Author's Note:**

> This was gathering dust in my computer since december, i thought maybe posting it would motivate me to finish.


End file.
